the bald guy in the middle of the photo owns the servers that Signal outsources the keeping of their privacy promises to ๐ค
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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The fact that Signal is operated on a central server based in US is absolutely a cause for concern. Even if the encryption system is sound, and messages cannot be decrypted by a third party, there's still a question of the server having the ability to map out who talks to whom via the server. Another thing to consider is that encryption that's sound today, could be broken in the future. So, if these messages are shared with the government, then they could be decrypted in the future.
Iโm one of those nerds
i started using linux because it was all i could afford and i'm glad that i do; i like happy accidents.
I found Linux because I was broke so the only laptop I could afford was a Windows 10 machine with 4GB RAM, so I looked into Linux Mint to squeeze out a more decent performance.
in my case; my windows me desktop got messed up during an update and i could only afford the $4 for a pack of mandrake cd's.
actually, it was $4 for the magazine and the cd's were free. lol
I just realized my shared box that was freebsd got moved to linux... I am dumb. I was wondering why command line was such a shithouse for me lately. Anyway. Installing my own RSS and happy to be on the decetnralized web.
i started to move into freebsd; but then i learned that the california board of regents pre-complied with the same export controls that the federal government has placed on the linux kernel; so now i'm looking for something else.
FOR REAL???? FUUUUCK.
what do you mean by "export controls"? backdoors?
the united states uses laws named export controls to create a list of "naughty" nations who aren't allowed to have certain technologies and; as of six-ish months ago; they forced those laws upon the linux kernel when they kicked out their russian developers.
the american federal government now gets to decide who can & can't contribute to the linux kernel and the bsd's did the same thing even though they didn't have to.
ah ok
How can you even have export controls on something digital and free?
in this case; it's because the kernel has to interact with firmware and that firmware is proprietary and under export control laws, but it's possible to get needful information on that firmware using the kernel; hence blocking people who know how to do that with the kernel from the kernel developer group.
the american gov't can disappear/suicide american/european kernel developers if they discover these secrets; but they can't do the same thing to russian kernel developers if they do the same thing.
cant you still get info on that firmware by just reading the kernel source code? how does contributing code get you info?
the firmware is not part of the linux kernel (it only works with the kernel); you will not be able to read the source unless you work for the company that owns it.
oh, you meant that since russians cannot contribute, then they're not going to work with american companies that want to have their firmwares supported by the kernel.
it's the other way around: the russians (and likely the chinese soon) won't be allowed to contribute so that linux can keep working with american companies & their firmware.
i see